The SCimPULSE foundation is a non-profit, public benefit organization based on research, innovation and education. The foundation connects people, institutions, schools and corporations, hosting an open network where potential ideas become feasible initiatives, to support targeted solutions until they achieve escape velocity or scale up to global impact

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The training method is experience based, so the users will be guided through monitored experiences that allow them understand the differences between different environment, different scenarios and different objects, and they will understand how sound bounce off them creating a huge amount of different echoes.

At first the exercises of our SoundSight Training will be static, basically our users should start understand how manage and perceive sound, and how sound change with different environment and with the presence of obstacles nearby. After macroscopic exercises the users should detect where a predefined obstacle is, on the right or on the left, for example.

All SoundSight users will experience their mistake, without negative consequences, in a comfort zone. It’s a method of solving problems. It is characterised by repeated, varied attempts which are continued until success,or until the agent stops trying.

This approach is far more successful with simple problems and in games, and is often resorted to when no apparent rule applies. This does not mean that the approach need be careless, for an individual can be methodical in manipulating the variables in an attempt to sort through possibilities that may result in success.

Blind people could do jogging with you, if they only could echolocate themselves. SoundSight Training will make them see with sound.

All of us could echolocate themselves inside the space, using our tongue click, and listening to the echo of that click, that contains information about the environment, about obstacles and their distance and their general form factor.

There are roughly 285 million visually impaired people in the world, 39 million are totally blind. Let this number sink: it means 1 in 20 people does not experience the world as you do. Together we can improve their quality of life, and offer them the opportunity of fulfil their potential. SoundSight Training is the name of our ICT educational programme that takes up this challenge: helping blind people navigating and orienteering themselves in a living/moving world as naturally as you, without relying on vision. Or rather, training a form of vision that does not rely on eyes, but on sound. The users could go inside the simulated environment and challenge themselves inside different scenarios.

SoundSight Training will allow our students to learn how detect echoes, at their own pace inside a comfort zone, like their own house; when they will fell ready they could go outside and challenge their echolocation skills.

SoundSight Training is an educational tool for visual impaired and blind people. The virtual reality guides our users inside different scenarios and different environment. Learning process is structured like a video game: different levels, a limited number of tries, heterogeneous goals and easy explanation of the objective. Every users will have their own score and they could improve it with acquiring objectives and winning the challenges.

It was Irene that came up with this conclusion, thinking out loud. The reality check of her statement was an eye opener: "All these projects have one thing in common, that they promise a second chance!" That is the major realization that came out of the workshop done with the people leading each one of the projects, done in September 2015.

Let's go back a moment and play from the start, so is clear what we are doing ... LEGO Serious Play is a method that prompts the players to focus on one aspect of the scene while extracting content from another perspective. The idea was to get the project leads connected in such a way that we could understand the landscape of the project portfolio within the umbrella of the foundation. The result is that while the players were busy discussing how their projects interface, the very fundamental reasons why some of these projects exist came afloat. We also learned the expected timelines, the worries and the uncertainties of each project. The collateral benefit is that now we can reflect over this meaningful conversation and use it as starting point to renew the foundation's communication plan.

The workshop was done in the inspiring setting of the Idea2quare building of CERN in Geneva. Time was challenging; we had to compress the technique into simplified versions of each phase, mainly because it was difficult to commit to a schedule.

The location is less than optimal due to echo from the metal walls of the containers, small tables, and is if that was not sufficient perturbation we also introduced external observers in the second half, putting extra pressure on the players. There are a few lessons learned here but we moved forward.

Luckily the first part, where the players meet each other and define their personality, is still done in a safe and private environment. The purposes of the warm up, also called "skill training" disconnects people from their daily problems, makes evident the profile of each player, and generates empathy within the group. In this specific workshop we asked for his or her "superpower" to focus first on the personality because they had never met before. Interesting to observe in this exercise is to discover the talents within the group. Here comes the "Eclectic Man", the "Path Finder", the "Diver" (but not because she dives), the "Core", the "Sensor", the "Fabricator" and "the one you use once only". This exercise completes the process of profiling the characters, knowing each other and lowers the threshold for inter-cooperation and collaboration.

What was in it for us in this initial phase? Understand their personalities enables the foundation to craft the image we want to deliver to the outside world when we use their profiles in blog entries, and reiterate the old communication plan with the new information. The old ideas about communication are transformed into something else, preparing to show the world what we have.

The next part was the vision of success, the ultimate goal of the project itself or the "intention" of each player in regards of his/her project: what is important for them is also important for us to know so we can use that to give an "identity" in the communication about the projects.And the projects came out, emerging from the hands of those scientists and visionaries, each one with an interpreted nickname or description, beginning with the "Creation of Venice" bridging them all into a complete project portfolio management. But, this post is about the workshop and we cannot include here the explanation or details of each project, otherwise it would become too long.

Due to the timing we had to leave the project models on a table overnight and come back the next morning. The next phase of the script was to build a shared/merged landscape with the project models. It is a guided group construction/discussion and this one was entirely recorded on audio. I will mention here only some highlights to understand the dynamics of the exercise.

When the players begin the phase of merging/connecting their visions of success, all possible conflicts arise. That is exactly the purpose of the joint construction exercise, to ventilate all possible elements, discuss, converge/diverge, dive as much as possible into each situation until the frustration and the dreaming are overcome and simplified by system thinking.

One item that was very hot was that "Resuscitation" and "More Happiness with Green Jobs" projects, who apparently understood each other perfectly in a previous meet up and even agreed to collaborate, discover how the personal motivation or intention of the projects poses a big difference in approach. After the two project leads cleared out that they can work together to learn from each other, then things became smoother.Still it took about about one hour of very animated discussion to get the flow re-established and gain speed towards a shared model. In these cases, unless there is a new external development that requires parking, a way out is to let them ventilate and go through the complete reasoning together until the landscape takes shape. And that is exactly what happened. There followed the "Human Brain Development", "Minimal Path", "3D®" and "SoundSight" projects, all completing the scene.

The major outcome for the foundation during the shared model exercise is to identify non-obvious links and dependencies between projects but also to observe the evolving image of the foundation through an emotional intelligence lens. Assessing the organization's profile from the point of view of the interacting projects is important to transmit a clear image that reflects the identity and intention as a whole.

Equally important are the simple guiding principles coming from this experience; the whole workshop points at extracting the key success factors or actions/decision rules, building strategic guideline. This concept is completely different from the traditional "strategy by planning", is actually called "real-time strategy" ... and the explanation of that is topic for another conversation.Here the simple guiding principles from this particular workshop:

- Observe the waters and winds, to make sure what you do is in harmony and supported by the universe around.

- Stay factual and pragmatic, avoid drifting into illusions.

- Keep the end goal in mind, be ready to adjust the course if needed.

- Make sure you can do it! that you have what it takes to do what you want to do.

- Whatever you do, make it visible! Don't work in a vacuum and communicate.

- Be aware of the consequences, when you take a decision keep in mind the impact of the project.

- Harmonize the full and the empty, leverage between strengths and weaknesses.

After several hours the workshop ends, it has been tiring but engaging and enlightening.

We have now a starting point for communications from the empathic and emotional perspective, that would not come from reading a standard project documentation. And finally, the simple guiding principles rated with pink bricks, building a second chance one brick at a time.

The first two days are the acceleration phase. During this time the projects are aligned, reviewed, polished and prepared for the presentations. These sessions are private with each participating project team and a small group composed of coaches, mentors, experts in different fields.

Acceleration builds up energy charge. Alignment prepares for collision, and 69192.7 is the timestamp of the first collision, the first of a series continuing for two and half days.

What happens during a collision? the interaction of the charges and the friction of the participants creates a synergy, resulting in collateral effects that benefit all parties involved. The collection of these effects is what brings new ideas, new approaches and opportunities to bring the projects to reality.
Many presentations will be live streamed or recorded. Details about how to connect to each session will be posted one day before the presentation.

We believe that addressing the present issues of humanity is more important than promising a better future, because the impact is right now, within our lifetime.

Global talents, scientists and entrepreneurs get together to co-create realistic solutions for major human conditions and issues affecting humanity today, and you can actually make it happen. Start by sharing this event with your contacts!

As a fundraiser you will increase the amount of donations made to the foundation. You do this by contacting potential donors and coming up with new ideas to raise funds.

If you’ve got excellent communication skills and love the idea of supporting a charity, this could be a career that offers what you’re looking for.

To be successful you need creativity, drive and enthusiasm to motivate people to donate funds and to come up with new fundraising ideas. Excellent organizational skills will help you to plan successful events.

The ability to network is paramount for this job, since success in the role depends heavily on being able to forge positive relationships with supporters.

Fundraisers also work to raise awareness of the charity's work, aims and goals.

You have a combination of at least some of these qualities, in no particular sequence:

creativity and imagination

excellent written and spoken communication skills

good presentation skills

drive and enthusiasm

the ability to motivate and manage others

excellent organizational skills

the ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines

budget management skills

commitment to your charity’s cause

sales skills

The offer we have for the fundraiser is first of all an inspiring, motivating environment in which there is a lot of freedom to apply your creativity and your your personal talents at will. Besides the high profile of the foundation's collaborators and partner institutions, you have the opportunity to grow your network in surprising new directions.

We offer a staff-position involving high visibility in a “no cure no pay” format. This means you have the opportunity to increase your income by excelling in your position. The percentage we can offer over the successfully raised funds is negotiable depending on your ambition and capabilities.

Although we have so far presence in the Netherlands and in Switzerland, you may be located anywhere on Earth (although some of the astronauts in orbit may also be candidates) so do not be shy to apply from wherever you are.

We have no preference on race, sex, age or social/political/religious tendency.